Bathroom Vanity – day 5

I managed to find a few hours in the shop today, but I didn’t make much progress. On the last post I got three of the drawers installed. Before Installing the rest, I found that one was out of square by at least 1/8″. Since that would make the drawer face sit crooked, I made another one today. Before installing the last three drawers, I thought of an easier way than using the Kreg drawer supports that I used on the other drawers.

Since I already had a couple of drawers successfully installed, All I needed to do was measure the location of the slide bracket on the ones that were done, and apply those dimensions to the next drawer, while it was setting on its side. I detached the ends of the slides to locate and attach them.

Then I re-inserted the slides and tested all of the drawers.

The original finish, that the client wanted, was a glossy, parchment white paint. After having a conversation, last week, with the client, it is possible that the paint will change. She was looking at pictures of the vanity and really liked the grain, she wanted to know if there was a way to paint the cabinet white, but still be able to see the grain through it. I suggested that we try Milk Paint. It is a water-based paint that is supposed to be semi-transparent until you get a couple of coats on. I have never tried it before, So I bought a can of General Finishes, Antique White, and a can of glossy water-based finish.

The directions suggest sanding the surfaces down with 220 grit paper.

After wiping away the dust, I opened the can of paint. It was way thicker than I thought it would be.

I cut up a couple of boards to test the paint on and started applying paint.

I painting both sides of one board, setting it on painter’s pyramids to dry. I dipped my brush into some water, and wiped it on one side of the board. This thinned out the already applied coat so it became slightly more transparent.

After that, I dipped my brush repeatedly in a bowl of water, then applied the severely diluted mixture to another board. It went on milky, then I wiped away the excess with a paper towel.

This left a thoroughly white-washed look.

After allowing everything to dry for an hour or so, I applied a second full coat, on top of half of the first full coat. This will give me side-by-side comparison.

When dry, I sanded everything down with 400 grit paper, then I applied the glossy clear coat.

It may be a little hard to tell from these pictures, but I think the samples turned out really well.

That is all I have time for today. Hopefully I will be able to get these samples to the client before I am ready to paint…